Didcot Powerstation Fire - Looks bad :(

[HorneyMX5]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29684205

[B17NNS]

25 fire engines. Not good.

[Steve vRS]

Cooling towers ablaze.

Expensive and on top of the de rating of Heysham and Hartlepool will put more strain on the grid this winter. Still, we have windmills.

Steve

[jogon]

Don't forget the wind farms I felt a slight breeze today and someone was flying a kite on Clapham Common so fingers crossed they are working.

[HorneyMX5]

Mrs HorneyMX5 works for National Grid and she says the wind farms actually produce quite a bit of power.

[williamp]

jogon said:

Don't forget the wind farms I felt a slight breeze today and someone was flying a kite on Clapham Common so fingers crossed they are working.

They are. Dont wish to sideline this thread, but in the last 24 hours 18.6% of UK electricity was wind generated. Ok it was windy, but not bad when you think about it...

[shred2bits]

HorneyMX5 said:

Mrs HorneyMX5 works for National Grid and she says the wind farms actually produce quite a bit of power.

Crazy talk, burn them, burn them to the ground

[Morningside]

That looks really, really bad. I hope everyone is OK.

I also think this will be another excuse for halting the building of Sizewell C.

[powerstroke]

HorneyMX5 said:

Mrs HorneyMX5 works for National Grid and she says the wind farms actually produce quite a bit of money .

Fixed that for you!!

[nyt]

HorneyMX5 said:

Mrs HorneyMX5 works for National Grid and she says the wind farms actually produce quite a bit of power.

Last time I checked (on their difficult website bmreports.com) it was less than 5% of the day's power.

[Pesty]

williamp said:

They are. Dont wish to sideline this thread, but in the last 24 hours 18.6% of UK electricity was wind generated. Ok it was windy, but not bad when you think about it...

Link please.

What is it over the year? 5?

[turbobloke]

powerstroke said:

HorneyMX5 said:

Mrs HorneyMX5 works for National Grid and she says the wind farms actually produce quite a bit of money for landowners via taxpayer subsidy and a bit of power but only when the wind blows and not too hard.

Fixed that for you!!

More fixes

The percentage figure can be misleading when demand is low and there's a breeze about. Actual output averaged over time is poor, there are regular updates in LongQ's thread.

At least the fire appears to be under control now; how long the lights will stay on now must be an even more pressing question.

[Russ35]

You can see the current and historical generation figures from here

http://nationalgrid.stephenmorley.org/

or

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Edited by Russ35 on Sunday 19th October 23:16

[turbobloke]

Pesty said:

williamp said:

They are. Dont wish to sideline this thread, but in the last 24 hours 18.6% of UK electricity was wind generated. Ok it was windy, but not bad when you think about it...

Link please.

What is it over the year? 5?

Last year according to Ofgem there was 9GW of installed capacity and given the variability of wind speeds, they estimate that only 17% of this capacity can be counted as firm for energy security purposes. With peak demand around 40GW this amounts to 3.8% which is inadequate. The intermittency problem won't go away even after the planned £1.3trillion has been wasted, hopefully some day soon politicians will wake up. This latest tragedy may assist. Hopefully there was no loss of life.

[anonymous-user]

HorneyMX5 said:

Mrs HorneyMX5 works for National Grid and she says the wind farms actually produce quite a bit of power.

Before the wind picked up and they set on fire

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/...

I was reading this earlier this week as a NIMBY was trying to use it to stall things

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&a...

[69 coupe]

How does a Cooling Tower go on fire? I thought they were made of concrete/blocks and hot water cooled inside them giving of water vapour clouds with the vast majority now cooled sufficiently then falling back inside not unlike rain.

[tumble dryer]

69 coupe said:

How does a Cooling Tower go on fire? I thought they were made of concrete/blocks and hot water cooled inside them giving of water vapour clouds with the vast majority now cooled sufficiently then falling back inside not unlike rain.

Couldn't have put it better; I'm obviously thick too. :-)

TD

[eharding]

69 coupe said:

How does a Cooling Tower go on fire? I thought they were made of concrete/blocks and hot water cooled inside them giving of water vapour clouds with the vast majority now cooled sufficiently then falling back inside not unlike rain.

I have no idea about the Dicot examples, but traditionally cooling towers can contain a large amount of wooden framing.

[Pesty]

eharding said:

69 coupe said:

How does a Cooling Tower go on fire? I thought they were made of concrete/blocks and hot water cooled inside them giving of water vapour clouds with the vast majority now cooled sufficiently then falling back inside not unlike rain.

I have no idea about the Dicot examples, but traditionally cooling towers can contain a large amount of wooden framing.

Didn't something similar happen to a coal fired one in the north in the last few months? A welder set it on fire iirc.

[dxg]

eharding said:

69 coupe said:

How does a Cooling Tower go on fire? I thought they were made of concrete/blocks and hot water cooled inside them giving of water vapour clouds with the vast majority now cooled sufficiently then falling back inside not unlike rain.

I have no idea about the Dicot examples, but traditionally cooling towers can contain a large amount of wooden framing.

But even so, how can it catch fire - what would the ignition source be?

Could they be confusing it with the actual flues? I wonder what kind of carbon capture installation it had...